I agree with Bryce that it probably doesn't affect Google's perception of the page at all.

However, from a user standpoint an "outdated" copyright could work against you. I see it as a sort of trust signal. I was on a page earlier that said "Copyright 2001" and I just couldn't get over it. If they can't bother to update the date on their site, why would they bother with having me as a customer?

Just something to think about. Great question.

I agree with Syed. If I'm understanding the situation correctly, you are worried about a single page linking to a different page multiple times. This should not be a problem at all. Google will not penalize.

I'm sure someone on here can tell you the technical reason why index pages are created (I have just kind of accepted that they exist), I can tell you how to fix the problem. You will need to set up a 301 redirect from either xxx/index to xxx or xxx to xxx/index. I'd point the redirect to the page with more backlinks.

That should fix your duplicate content problem.

Thanks everyone. It seems the consensus is to rename the files (assuming they aren't already ranking high with their current file name), ensure each one has proper alt text and submit an image site map to google.

I've got a busy Friday ahead of me!

Also, Mike - thanks for the tip on the caption tag. I hadn't thought of that. Every little bit of "google juice" helps. I'm going to give it a try!

Thanks, Benjamin. That's a great way of looking at it. All of the images I looked at did have "golden retriever" in the beginning of the file name.

Plus bonus points because I got to look at puppies.

I am currently working on a site with 100+ recipes that all have image file names that are relevant, but not optimized for keyword purposes. I'm wondering - from an SEO perspective - would it be worth my time to go back through all of the images and rename them with keywords in mind?

On my own site I have always done this as a "best practice" but I'm curious - does it make a difference to search engines? Does anyone have any recent research/experiences that they would like to share?

Thanks!

If it is a small local business I'd definitely invest a few of those hours in getting local profiles set up. Taking the time to do consistent, quality listings can prove invaluable for a local business. Here is a great list of local business directories:

http://websuccessdiva.com/blog/local-business-directories/

Other than that I agree with Ryan that project mapping is very important. But that is assuming you will eventually have more than 8 hours to work on the project.